Svetlana Romanova

Svetlana Romanova (Sakha/Even) is an artist, filmmaker, and activist born in Yakutsk, the capital city of the Sakha Republic, Russia, located south of the Arctic Circle. Her practice centers on the critical importance of Indigenous visual language and sovereignty to the sustainability of Indigenous identity, particularly in the Arctic regions, and how art can be used as a tool for Indigenous advocacy internationally. She received a BFA from Otis College of Art and Design (2012) and an MFA from California Institute of the Arts (2014). Her films, including Gospel According to Ophelia (2014), Kyusyur/Stado (2021), and Arctic Utopias (2022), have been exhibited at venues around the world, including the National Art Museum of the Republic of Sakha, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Flaherty NYC, e-flux Screening Room, Tampere Film Festival, Norwegian Documentary Film Festival, New Horizons International Film Festival, Goethe Institute (Montréal), Artist’s House (Yakutsk), and California Institute of the Arts, among others. She is the recipient of grants, fellowships, residencies, and awards, including “The Right To Be Cold* – Circumpolar Perspectives” Residency in Nunavik and Sápmi, supported by the Goethe Institut (Montréal); a Jan van Eyck Academie Residency (2022–2023); and a Sustainability Award from Tampere Film Festival (2022), together with Ville Koskinen, Daniela Toma, and Matti Kinnunen. She is a member of Arctic Utopias, a collective of creative people concerned about the negative environmental and political evolutions impacting the Arctic, and is a COUSIN collective Cycle II artist (2022–2023), supporting her forthcoming project Voyage of Jeanette, a visual essay structured around the Bulunsky district, its residents, and their traditional practices. She lives and works in Yakutsk.